RACHAEL BARTON

I am an adult‑trained registered nurse with extensive clinical experience across primary, community, secondary, and tertiary care settings. My career reflects progressive responsibility, advanced clinical practice, service development, education, and leadership within nursing and pain management.

I commenced my nursing career in Liverpool as a Treatment Room Practitioner, appointed through the Staff Nurse Development Programme. In this role, I developed early autonomy in clinical decision‑making, providing minor injury care alongside advanced wound and leg ulcer management.

Following completion of the programme, I moved into District Nursing within rural West Lancashire, delivering domiciliary care and treatment‑room services across a geographically extensive area. This role strengthened my skills in holistic, community‑based care and independent clinical practice.

I subsequently worked as a Family Health Nurse alongside Health Visitors, delivering domiciliary visits, Well Baby Clinics, health promotion, and childhood immunisations across Sefton. During this time, I trained as a CPR instructor, delivering emergency life‑support education to families following bereavement due to Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, strengthening my skills in sensitive family‑centred care and education.

My developing interest in pain management led me to secondary and tertiary care at The Walton Centre NHS Foundation Trust, where I worked as a staff nurse across inpatient wards and day‑case units, coordinating complex care pathways, patient flow, and discharge planning.

Following completion of an MSc in Pain Management, I progressed to the role of Clinical Nurse Specialist in Chronic Pain, a post I held until 2021. In this role, I developed advanced expertise in neuropathic pain syndromes, including post‑surgical neuropathic pain, peripheral diabetic neuropathy, phantom limb pain, and central neuropathic pain. My clinical practice included advanced assessment, patient education, medication optimisation, and long‑term condition management.

I established and led one of the first nurse‑led high‑concentration capsaicin clinics in the UK, developing the service protocol and standard operating procedures. This service was recognised by industry as an example of best practice, and I worked collaboratively with industry partners to support the rollout of similar services across the North West of England.

I am an independent nurse prescriber (V300) and played a key role in opioid management and opioid‑weaning pathways for inpatients and outpatients. I developed a specialist interest in supporting patients to reduce long‑term opioid use and delivered external education for GPs and allied health professionals on opioid deprescribing in the community, in collaboration with medical colleagues.

I also supported the development and safety of the inpatient intravenous ketamine service, creating nursing standard operating procedures, delivering ward‑based education, and improving procedural safety through the introduction of specialist infusion equipment.

My role further encompassed patient education within Pain Management Programmes, medication follow‑up, and structured medication reduction planning, supporting patients to develop confidence and self‑management strategies.

I currently teach within postgraduate education and am Programme Lead for the Postgraduate Certificate in Teaching and Learning in Clinical Education. My academic interests focus on transformative clinical education, supporting healthcare professionals to develop inclusive, innovative, and practice‑authentic educational approaches.

I also have extensive experience teaching undergraduate nursing students and remain strongly committed to improving the quality, depth, and visibility of pain education within pre‑registration curricula across health professions.

I have been appointed to serve a four‑year term (from January 2026) as a committee member of the Royal College of Nursing Pain and Palliative Care Forum, contributing to national professional leadership and policy‑informed practice.

I am a member of the Future NHS Collaboration, engaging with national experts to discuss and influence evolving areas of clinical and professional practice. I am also a member of the Chief Nursing Officer for England’s Policy Network, contributing to evidence‑informed discussion and policy development at national level.

I am actively engaged in supporting the work of The Pain Relief Foundation, a Liverpool‑based charity that promotes pain research and provides direct support to individuals living with chronic pain, contributing to community engagement and public benefit.